The position of dean for research was created in 2006 with Smith as its first incumbent. The dean is responsible for encouraging innovation and collaboration across campus, promoting Princeton research to potential donors and supporters, ensuring that all research meets the highest ethical standards, and encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit that aims to bring what's developed in the lab to market and the public.

The dean for research works directly with the provost and with other senior leaders to develop and support a dynamic intellectual community. Debenedetti will oversee the offices of Corporate and Foundation Relations, Research Integrity and Assurance, Research and Project Administration, Research Resources, and Technology Licensing.

In announcing the appointment, President Shirley M. Tilghman said, "As a distinguished scientist and a seasoned academic leader, Pablo Debenedetti is unusually well suited to support and strengthen Princeton's capacity to conduct research of the highest possible quality and in accordance with the highest possible standards."

Provost Christopher Eisgruber said that Debenedetti has the experience and respect of faculty members and administrators that he will need to promote Princeton research in times characterized by stiff competition and limited funds.

"I am thrilled that Pablo Debenedetti has agreed to serve as Princeton's next dean for research. Pablo is a brilliant scholar, a dedicated University citizen and a proven administrator," Eisgruber said. "During his five years as vice dean for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, Pablo earned the admiration of faculty members and administrative staff throughout the University. In a time when research funding is under pressure from many directions, he has the experience, acumen and leadership skills needed to help our faculty members compete effectively for grants and diversify their sources of support.

"Stew Smith, Princeton's first dean for research, did a marvelous job building an outstanding staff and defining the mission of his office," Eisgruber continued. "The platform that Stew established will enable his successor to focus on a new and timely range of issues, including how to facilitate applications for large center grants and how to enrich Princeton's connections to the corporate and foundation worlds."

"It's a real honor to serve Princeton as dean for research because Princeton is one of the world's great research universities," said Debenedetti. "Stew Smith did an excellent job as founding dean for research. He has rationalized the University's research infrastructure, so he provides a very solid basis on which to start."

Debenedetti said he brings to the position his years as a researcher in the field of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics of liquids and glasses, as well as experience as an administrator with an eye for supporting cutting-edge and collaborative research. Combined, these roles endow him with a firsthand perspective of the support and guidance faculty members need with an administrator's sense of how to generate support for research and technology transfer.

Debenedetti joined the Princeton faculty in 1985 after receiving his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2012, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008, and the National Academy of Engineering in 2000, being named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011, and being credited among the "100 Chemical Engineers of the Modern Era" by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2008.

From 1996 to 2004, Debenedetti served as chair of the chemical engineering department. In 2008, he was named vice dean of engineering. In that role, Debenedetti said, he strove to use innovation funds to identify and promote "very new ideas," which he described as work that has great potential and explores unfamiliar frontiers. He hopes to expand that vision University-wide.